Senator Feinstein Update on FHA Limits

Dear Mr. Thorngren:

Thank you for contacting me to express your support for permanently increasing the conforming loan limit. I appreciate the time you took to write and agree with you.

The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) plays an important role in insuring home mortgages for those in underserved communities. It is critical that FHA programs be modernized to provide more homebuyers and borrowers looking to refinance with the opportunity to obtain an FHA loan. This remains especially important in California where the cost of housing remains high. For homebuyers faced with so-called "jumbo loans" subject to higher interest rates, raising the government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) conforming loan limit will bring more liquidity to the market and lower interest rates.

On February 13, 2008, the President signed the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 (H.R. 5140) into law. As the bill was being developed, I sent a letter to Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) expressing strong support for increasing the previous GSE conforming loan limit of $417,000 and the FHA loan limit of $362,790 to $729,750. While I am pleased that a temporary increase was included in the bill, the new loan limits will expire on December 31, 2008.

On July 11, 2008, the Senate passed the "Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008," (H.R. 3221) introduced by Senators Christopher J. Dodd (D-CT) and Richard C. Shelby (R-AL). Prior to Senate consideration of the bill, I urged Senators Dodd and Shelby to keep the FHA loan limit and GSE conforming loan limits at the current level of $729,750. The Senate passed its version of H.R. 3221 on July 11, 2008. While the Senate-passed version of the bill would only raise the loan limits to $625,500, the House-passed version would keep them at their current level. On July 11, 2008, I joined 52 members of the California Congressional delegation in sending a letter to leaders of the Senate and House leadership urging them to retain the $729,750 limits in the final version of this important bill.

I fully support the higher limit and will continue to push to make it permanent.

Thanks for writing.
Sincerely yours,
Dianne Feinstein United States Senator
Further information about my position on issues of concern to California and the Nation are available at my website http://feinstein.senate.gov/public/. You can also receive electronic e-mail updates by subscribing to my e-mail list at http://feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=ENewsletterSignup.Signup.